Ohio Amish Mystery Series

In Cast a Blue Shadow, his fourth Amish mystery, P. L. Gaus spins a suspenseful tale of power, pride, and tested faith. As always, Gaus explores the threshold of culture and faith among the Amish sects and their English neighbors, combining it here with the political divisions unique to the academic world.
After an early winter blizzard in Holmes County, Ohio, a wealthy socialite is found murdered in her mansion. That same morning, a troubled student, Martha Lehman, turns up at her psychiatrist’s office, bloody and unable to speak.
Professor Michael Branden and Sheriff Bruce Robertson begin an investigation that threatens to tear Millersburg College apart. Mute for many years as a child, Martha is once again unable (or unwilling) to speak. As Branden wrestles with the murder of the college’s leading benefactor, the real story of Martha Lehman begins to emerge—born Amish, converted to Mennonite, and drawn to the “English” world for the worst of reasons.
This new edition of Cast a Blue Shadow features an exclusive interview with the author, reading group materials, and a detailed map and driving guide to Holmes County, Ohio, with everything one needs to visit the iconic scenes depicted in the story.

Clouds Without Rain

by P. L. Gaus

Published 1 February 2001

In the wake of a fatal accident involving an Amish horse-and-buggy and an eighteen-wheeler, Professor Michael Branden, working with the Holmes County Sheriff's Department, becomes suspicious about the true nature of the crash. His suspicions grow when the trustee of the dead man's estate disappears a few days later, and Branden knows he has more on his hands than a buggy crash on a sleepy country road. Faced with Amish teenagers robbing buggies on dusty lanes, land swindles involving out-of-town developers, several people dead, and a bank official missing, Branden struggles to understand the connections that will eventually link all of the pieces together. Clouds without Rain is a well-plotted story about the core of the human condition, as illustrated by the thought and faith of the Amish, and by their stewardship of the land they hold sacred. Once again, P. L. Gaus provides compelling intrigue along with an insight into a culture making its way side by side with contemporary American life.